Ellyse Perry comes into the side in decent form, with Mott still believing she'll play a big role in the upcoming Women's Ashes series (Photo: cricket.com.au)
The Women’s Ashes are set to kick off this Thursday, with Australian coach Matthew Mott excited to see one of Australia’s greatest players return.
Perry won’t be available for the women’s warm-up matches against Australia A today at Karen Rolton Oval due to a COVID scare. However, Mott said to the media today she will be a part of their meetings later on when she arrives in Adelaide later on Tuesday.
“She’s really excited. We’re looking forward to seeing her back part of the group,” Mott said.
Despite not firing with the bat or ball in WBBL07, she scored 120 and picked up 1/10 in a player of the match performance for Victoria against New South Wales in her last match prior to the upcoming Women’s Ashes series.
Despite her below-par WBBL07, Mott still believes she comes into the multi-format series in decent nick thanks to her last WNCL game.
“Ellyse is definitely still in the mix, she’s been in my opinion probably the greatest player that’s ever played the game of women’s cricket,” Mott said.
“To even have these conversations is just showing how far the depth within our squad has come and we look at it as a real positive, not a negative.”
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Mott conceded there would be a “lot of debate” about the make-up of the team for Thursday’s opening T20 against England with Perry’s place in the XI, despite her form still not secure.
His comments come after selection chairman Shawn Flegler couldn’t guarantee Perry, who has played 126 T20s for Australia as a mainstay of the team since her 2008 debut as a teenager, a spot in the team.
Mott said that whilst she is a chance to play, the selection committee will still make the tough decisions to select players based on their ability.
“It’s not necessarily about picking the best players sometimes in those five, six, and seven spots, it’s the players with the ability to score runs off 10 balls so someone who can score 15 runs off 10 balls is an incredibly valuable asset,” he said.
“It’s something that we keep going back to, but we’ve got depth to make some tough decisions and we’ve made a real commitment as a selection group to make those tough decisions.”
He also added that Perry was one of the people who wanted them to make the tough calls.
“She’s someone who actually called for it in our group for us to be really specific on our teams so there’ll be really interesting conversations over the next 24 hours.”
Australia and England begin the first leg of the Women’s multi-format Ashes on Thursday with three T20 matches at Adelaide Oval.
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